Michigan Island Light

Michigan Island Light, on Michigan Island in western Lake Superior, is notable for having two lighthouse towers on one station: an 1856 light and a taller 1929 replacement that still serves navigation. Congress had authorized the original light to help ships bound for La Pointe, but government representative Abraham Smolk shifted construction from Long Island to a bluff on Michigan Island without approval. Officials soon closed the light, and it remained abandoned until 1869. Because the site still poorly warned ships away from nearby hazards, wrecks continued until a much taller former Delaware River tower was moved there and reassembled in 1929. The station was automated in 1943 and later became part of the Apostle Islands’ protected historic lighthouses.

La Pointe, Wisconsin · United States